Victoria favourite Mike Edel has made the finals of CBC Music’s Searchlight Competition, which awards its winner $50,000 in prizes.
Edel, 31, was named one of the Top 25 regional finalists in the contest, selected by an industry panel that picked his single Blue Above the Green as the top submission in the Vancouver Island region. Searchlight judges Maestro Fresh Wes, Sarah Blackwood and Dallas Smith chose a single entry from each of the 23 participating markets. Two finalists were chosen by popular vote.
The jury will pick three winners from the final group, with a fourth voted in by fans. Those finalists will compete for prizes that include $20,000 in equipment, a recording and mixing session at Metalworks Studios and a spot at the CBCMusic.ca Festival in Toronto, among other incentives.
Voting for the national round closes at noon on Monday. To vote, go to cbcmusicsearchlight.ca.
Tickets for Nanaimo’s Party in the Park festival featuring Monster Truck, One Bad Son and Girls Guns and Glory are selling quickly, according to organizers.
The event, which also features Under the Mountain, Chris Andres & the Stompin’ Devilles, and Fallbrigade, is set for Canada Day at the Beban Park Sports Fields.
Tickets are $48 (general admission) and $75 (VIP) at Original Joe’s, 3280 North Island Highway in Nanaimo. The event is for all ages, with kids under 11 admitted free when accompanied by a paid adult.
For more information, go to nanaimo2016.com.
Mother’s Day will be given a jazzy twist this afternoon with a set from the CanUS Hot Jazz Band and special guest Avram McCagherty.
The performance — under the banner Jazzy Moms’ Day — is set for 3 p.m. at Hermann’s Jazz Club. The performance runs until 6 p.m., so you have a chance to catch some afternoon music before taking mom out for dinner.
Tickets are $12. Hermann’s Jazz Club is located at 753 View St.
A “song and story” performance by Vancouver’s Bif Naked is on the calendar Wednesday at the Alix Goolden Performance Hall, but the tattooed rocker will have help early on from the son of an NHL Hall of Famer.
Jonathan Roy, son of legendary goalie Patrick Roy, has embarked on a career as a singer-songwriter and will perform an acoustic set in support of Naked. Roy once tended the crease for the Québec Remparts of QMJHL, but has since come under the tutelage of Montreal hitmaker Corey Hart.
Tickets for the Naked/Roy performance are $30 at ticketfly.com. They will also play Tuesday at The Queens Hotel, 34 Victoria Crescent, in Nanaimo.
The Alix Goolden Performance Hall is located at 907 Pandora Ave.
Get your ticket trigger-finger working if you’re hoping to catch Aaron Pritchett when he performs an intimate concert Aug. 27 at The Duke Saloon (502 Discovery St.),
Pritchett will perform with his full band at this show, his first in the market since a November appearance at the Tally-Ho Sports Bar and Grill. The former Vancouver Canucks draft pick is expected to have a new album, The Score, in stores June 24.
Tickets are $51 at ticketsnap.ca.
The annual Play Tall Tree Contest is now live, so local bands looking for some great exposure at this year’s Tall Tree Music Festival have until May 13 to get their business in order.
Once the submissions are in, a roster of 15 bands chosen by an industry panel will be put to a public vote. The top-five vote-getters will be put on the bill at a June 4 performance, from which the eventual winner will be chosen. Interested artists can submit their applications through talltreemusicfestival.com.
The seventh annual Tall Tree Music Festival will be held June 30-July 3 atop Brown’s Mountain in Port Renfrew. For more information on the event, go to talltreemusicfestival.com.
Fan favourite Danny Michel will bring the songs on his Caribbean-flavoured new record, Matadora, to stages across Western Canada in June.
The three-time Juno Award nominee from Waterloo, Ont., will begin his tour with three Vancouver Island dates. He’ll play The Cumberland Hotel on June 4, Hermann’s Jazz Club on June 5 and Duncan’s Garage Showroom on June 6. For more information, go to dannymichel.com.
Local buzz act Band of Rascals will play four Vancouver Island shows in a single day to promote this year’s Rock the Shores festival.
Tour De Shores II will visit four communities on June 25 in support of two charities, Tour de Rock and the TLC Fund for Kids. Band of Rascals will travel more than 200 kilometres for the tour, which makes its first stop at 11 a.m. in Courtenay. The band and the Rock the Shores Cavalcade will then proceed to Nanaimo (1:20 p.m.) and Duncan (3:15 p.m.) before the tour comes to a close at a West Shore location to be named later.
Rock the Shores is set for July 22-24 at the West Shore Parks and Recreation Lower Fields in Colwood. Headliners this year include City and Colour, Metric, Eagles of Death Metal, Current Swell, Jesse Roper, Arkells and more.
For more information, go to rocktheshores.com.
